accompanied with her younger Sister and a Gentlewoman of her attendance who were all three in the Room while I spake with her and I brought in with me Mr. Michael Branthwait heretofore His Majesties Agent in Venice as a Gentleman of approved confidence and sincerity At my access unto her because I was a stranger and the business somewhat harsh and umbrageous I laboured to take from her all manner of shadow touching her self which in truth I found very needless For after I had shewed her my Commission and the places in Eglisham's Book wherein she was traduced for a Witness of this foul defamation she was so far from disguising or reserving any circumstance that she prevented all my inquisitiveness in some Questions which I had prepared making a clear a free and a noble report of all that had passed which she did dictate unto me as I wrote in her Window in her own words without any inforcement or interruption as followeth At His Majesties being in Spain a Carr-man of one Smith a Woodmonger in Westminster found a Paper as he said and gave it to my Mothers Foot-man to read whose Name was Thomas Allet who brought it immediately to me it was half a sheet of Paper laid double by the length and in it was written in a scribled hand the Names of a number above a dozen of the Privy Counsel some words had been written more which were scraped out The Names were not writ in order as they were of quality In it next to the Marquess of Hamilton was writ Dr. Eglisham to imbalm him No mention of poysoning or any such thing but very Names I not knowing what it might import more the Marquess of Hamilton not being at that instant in Whitehall I sent for Iames Steward Servant to the Duke of Richmond and desired him to shew his Lord that Paper wherein was his Name He said he would not present it himself but would give it to Alexander Heatley his Secretary So he took the Paper from me and within a day or two after he brought it back to me and said the Secretary thought it not necessary to trouble his Lord with all for as he did conceive some that had a Cause to be heard before the Privy Counsel or in the Star Chamber had written these Names to help his own memory to reckon who would be with him or against him Immediately then I sent the said Allet to David Strachen Servant to the Marquess of Hamilton and bade him give that to his Lord from me immediately which he said he did and that his Lord read it and put it in his Pocket These are the very express and formal words which this noble Gentlewoman with a very frank and ingenious spirit as I am bound to testifie of her did dictate to me in the presence of the above-named Whereby may appear to any reasonable creature what a silly piece of malice this was when Mr. Alexander Heatley a Gentleman of sober judgement to whom the Roll was first sent though that be concealed by Eglisham did think it too frivolous to be so much as once shewed to his Master howsoever named therein At this first Conference as I was ready to depart my Lord of Oldebare's Daughter desired of me a view of the Book out of which I had read her some passages wherein her Name was traduced which could in no equity be denied So I left it with her till the next day praying that I might then have her full judgement of it When repairing again unto her she told me as freely as the rest in the hearing of the same company as before except her Gentlewoman that Eglisham had gone upon very slight grounds in so great a matter The Copy of my Letter to the Duke about the same Examination I Send unto your Grace by this Bearer Mr. Michael Branthwait the Examination of the Lord of Oldebare's Daughter touching the Roll of Names said to be found in Westminster of Great Personages which were to be poysoned here while you were in Spain In the delivery whereof I have been carefull as an Examiner and Relater to set down nothing but her bare and free report which is the Historical part The Critical now remaineth for after the examination of circumstances there is a liberty of judgement I have seen many defamatory and libellous things of this nature abroad and at home though for the most part alwayes without truth yet oftentimes contrived with some credibility But this appeareth in the whole contexture utterly void of both even though we had never known your Grace nay I will say more though we had known you to be as bad and as black as this Author would paint you For first the main ground upon which he would raise this defamation is the foresaid Roll of Names found forsooth not in a Cabinet but in a dirty Street Now when we come to hunt it home the authentical Instruments that should give it credit are a Carrman and a Footman till at last it came to Mr. Alexander Heatley a Gentleman indeed as I have conceived of him of sound abilities Then what does he with it Marry He thought it so frivolous that albeit it had passed to him through the hands of a noble Gentlewoman of his own Countrey yet he vvould not once trouble the late Duke of Richmond his Master so much as vvith a sight of it though his said Master vvas one of the inrolled Then it comes back again and the Gentlewoman conveyeth it by another hand to the late Marquess of Hamilton What doth he vvith it It sleeps in his Pocket There vve are not only at a fault in the Hunters term but at a rest as if vve vvere but playing at Tennis I am sorry to charge the memory of that Worthy Gentleman to vvhom I vvas much bound for his favour so far as his Doctor hath laden him that if he thought it more important then Mr. Heatley did either by vvant of charity he vvould smother so horrible a practice against the lives of at least a dozen of his Collegues in Privy Counsel or for vvant of courage not prosecute his own Cause Especially your Grace vvhose power this Pamphletter doth alledge for the impediment of all prosecution being then as appeareth by the Examination in Spain Much more might be said upon the matter but I value not only your Graces but mine own time at a greater price Yet I have committed a remembrance or two to this Bearer for vvhose sincerity I am bound to answer because I did choose him for a Witness in the Examination One scruple only I had in point of formality Whether I should address this accompt or no to the Counsel Table vvhence I received the Commission But considering that it came unto me though by Order from thence yet under the Kings trust I have directed it to your hands vvhom it most concerneth I had vvaited vvith it on your Grace in person but that in truth some straitness by
Danger In his countenance which is the part that all eyes interpret no open alteration even after the succours which he expected did fail him but the less he shewed without the more it wrought intrinsecally according to the nature of suppressed passions For certain it is that to his often mentioned Secretary Doctor Mason whom he laid in Pallet near him for natural Ventilation of his thoughts he would in the absence of all other ears and eyes break out into bitter and passionate Eruptions protesting That never his Dispatches to divers Princes nor the great business of a Fleet of an Army of a Siege of a Treaty of War of Peace both on foot together and all of them in his head at a time did not so much break his repose as a conceit That some at home under his Majesty of whom he had well deserved were now content to forget him but whom he meant I know not and am loth to rove at conjectures Of their two Forts he could not take the one nor would he take the other but in the general Town he maintained a seisure and possession of the whole three full months and eighteen days and at the first descent on shore he was not immured within a wooden Vessel but he did countenance the landing in his long Boat Where succeeded such a defeat of near two hundred Horse and these not by his ghess mounted in haste but the most part Gentlemen of Family and great resolution seconded with two thousand Foot as all circumstances well ballanced on either side may surely endure a comparison with any of the bravest Impressions in ancient time In the issue of the whole business he seems charged in opinion with a kind of improvident conscience having brought of that with him to Camp perchance too much from a Court where Fortune had never deceived him Besides we must consider him yet but rude in the profession of Arms though greedy of Honour and zealous in the Cause At his return to Plimouth a strange accident befell him perchance not so worthy of memory for it self as for that it seemeth to have been a kind of prelude to his final period The now Lord Goring a Gentleman of true honour and of vigilant affections for his Friend sends to the Duke in all expedition an express Messenger with advisement to assure his own Person by declining the ordinary Road to London for that he had credible Intelligence of a plot against his life to be put in execution upon him in his said journey towards the Court. The Duke meeting the Messenger on the way read the Letter and smothering it in his pocket without the least imaginable apprehension rides forwards His company being about that time not above seven or eight in number and those no otherwise provided for their defence then with ordinary swords After this the Duke had advanced three miles before he met with an old Woman near a Town in the Road who demanded Whether the Duke were in the company and bewraying some especial occasion to be brought to him was lead to his Horse-side where she told him that in the very next Town where he was to pass she had heard some desperate men vow his death And thereupon would have directed him about by a surer way This old Womans casual access joyn'd with that deliberate advertisement which he had before from his Noble Friend moved him to participate both the tenour of the said Letter and all the circumstances with his Company who were joyntly upon consent that the Woman had advised him well Notwithstanding all which importunity he resolved not to wave his way upon this reason perhaps more generous then provident that if as he said he should but once by such a diversion make his Enemy believe he were afraid of danger he should never live without Hereupon his young Nephew Lord Viscount Fielding being then in his Company out of a Noble spirit besought him that he would at least honour him with his Coat and blew Ribbon thorow the Town pleading that his Uncle's life whereon lay the property of his whole Family was of all things under Heaven the most precious unto him and undertaking so to gesture and muffle up himself in his hood as the Duke's manner was to ride in cold weather that none should discern him from him and so he should be at the more liberty for his own defence At which sweet Proposition the Duke caught him in his arms and kissed him yet would not as he said accept of such an offer in that case from a Nephew whose life he tendred as much as himself and so liberally rewarded the poor Creature for her good will After some short directions to his Company how they should carry themselves he rode on without perturbation of his mind He was no sooner entred into the Town but a scambling Souldier clapt hold of his bridle which he thought was in a begging or perchance somewhat worse in a drunken fashion yet a Gentleman of his train that rode a pretty distance behind him conceiving by the premisses it might be a beginning of some mischievous intent spurred up his Horse and with a violent rush severed him from the Duke who with the rest went on quickly through the Town neither for ought I can hear was there any further enquiry into that practice the Duke peradventure thinking it wisdome not to resent discontentments too deep At his return to the Court he found no change in Faces but smothered murmurings for the loss of so many gallant Gentlemen against which his friends did oppose in their discourses the chance of War together with a gentle expectation for want of supply in time After the complaints in Parliament and the unfortunate issue at Rheez the Dukes fame did still remain more and more in obloquy among the mass of people whose judgements are only reconciled with good successes so as he saw plainly that he must abroad again to rectifie by his best endeavour under the publick Service his own reputation Whereupon new preparatives were in hand and partly reparatives of the former beaten at Sea And in the mean while he was not unmindfull in his civil course to cast an eye upon the wayes to win unto him such as have been of principal credit in the Lower House of Parliament applying lenitives or subducting from that part where he knew the humors were sharpest amidst which thoughts he was surprized with a fatal stroke written in the black Book of necessity There was a younger Brother of mean fortunes born in the County of Suffolk by name Iohn Felton by nature of a deep melancholy silent and gloomy constitution but bred in the active way of a Souldier and thereby raised to the place of Lieutenant to a Foot-Company in the Regiment of Sir Iames Ramsey This was the man that closely within himself had conceived the Dukes death But what may have been the immediate or greatest motive of that fellonious conception is even
of the Alps for Winds as well as Waters are tainted in their passage and the consequence which men make in common discourse from the Degree of the place to the Temper is indeed very deceiveable without a due regard to other circumstances The Circuit thereof through divers Creeks is not well determinable but as Astronomers use to measure the Stars vve may account it a City of the first Magnitude as London Paris Gaunt Millain Lisbon c. Hovv they came to be founded in the midst of the Waters I could never meet with any clear Memorial The best and most of their Authors ascribe their first beginnings rather to chance or necessity then counsel which yet in my opinion will amount to no more then a pretty conjecture intenebrated by Antiquity for thus they deliver it They say that among the Tumults of the middle Age vvhen Nations vvent about swarming like Bees Atylas that great Captain of the Hunnes and scourge of the World as he vvas styled lying long vvith a numerous Army at the Siege of Aquileia it struck a mighty affrightment and confusion into all the nearer parts vvhereupon the best sort of the bordering People out of divers Towns agreed either suddenly or by little and little as fear vvill sometimes collect as vvell as distract to convey themselves and their substance into the uttermost bosome of the Adriatick Gulf and there possessed certain desolate Islets by Tradition about seventy in number vvhich afterwards necessity being the Mother of Art were tacked together with Bridges and so the City took a rude form vvhich grevv civilized vvith time and became a great example vvhat the smallest things vvell fomented may prove They glory in this their begining two ways First that surely their Progonitors vvere not of the meanest and basest quality for such having little to lose had as little cause to remove Next that they vvere timely instructed vvith Temperance and Penury the Nurses of Moderation And true it is that as all things savour of their first Principles so doth the said Republick as I shall afterwards shew even at this day for the Rule vvill hold as vvell in Civil as in Natural Causes Caetera desunt An Epistle Dedicatory of the following Discourse Right Honourable and my very good Lord HAving here lately seen the deaths of two and the elections of two other Dukes within the compass of six weeks I have been bold to entertain your Lordship with a little story of these changes and competitions though with small presumption that you can take any pleasure in my simple report thereof unless it win some favour by the freshness or the freedome For the rest the whole Town is here at the present in horror and confusion upon the discovering of a foul and fearful conspiracy of the French against this State whereof no less then thirty have already suffered very condign punishment between men strangled in prison drowned in the silence of the night and hanged in publick view and yet the bottom is invisible If God's mercy had not prevented it I think I might for mine own particular have spared my late supplication to the King about my return home towards next Winter For I cannot hope that in the common Massacre publick Ministers would have been distinguished from other men nay rather we might perchance have had the honour to have our â—…ses thought worthiest the rifling I shall give your Lordship a better account of this in my next having now troubled you beyond excuse with my poor Papers Our blessed God keep your Lordship in his love Venice this 25. of May 1618. Your Lordships vvith all true devotion HENRY WOTTON THE ELECTION OF THE NEW DUKE OF VENICE After the Death of GIOVANNI BEMBO ON Friday being the 16 of March in this year 1618. about an hour before Sun-setting Giovanni Bembo the 91 Duke of Venice ended his dayes in the 75 year of his Age His disease was a Feaver occasioned by some obstruction in his reins that stopped the course of his water Whether the Physicians did hasten his end by taking from him more blood then his years could spare is now too late a question His name is one of the Ancientest among them His Father was a Gentleman almost of the lowest poverty till he matched with a wealthy Citizens Daughter who afterwards proved the Heir of her Father leaving issue male this Duke Giovanni and Philippo his Brother Philippo who only was married being not the Custome of Venice for more Brothers then one to take Wife died some few moneths before the Duke in greater reputation then degree For their Laws do suppress the Brothers of their Dukes The Duke himself did arise by Imployments at Sea His first Action of note was in the Battel of Lepanto where besides some wounds that he received for his own share the success of that great day in such trepidation of the State made every man meritorious He was lastly to omit his middle steps while the. Republick stood under Excommunication by this Pope the King of Spain likewise then arming made General of their Maritime Forces This is the solemnest Title they can confer under the Princedome being indeed a kind of Dictatorship to which they have no Charge equivalent on the Land having been content as it seems in honour of their Situation to give the Prerogative of trust to that Element To the Princedome he was chosen being none of the Competitors then in voice Who unable to make themselves and unwilling to make their Concurrents as he fashion is agreed in a Third He held the Place two years three moneths and twelve dayes with general good liking though indeed his praises were rather Moral then Intellectual as more consisting in goodness of disposition then any other eminent Ability For he was neither eloquent profound nor learned only notable in his splendour and oeconomical magnificence beyond ordinary example and perchance in another nature beyond Permission For these Popularities among them are somewhat hazardous To Ambassadours he gave small satisfaction save with his eyes which were very gracious and kind In his Countenance otherwise there was an invincible weakness alwayes blushing while he spake and glad when he had done Whereby his Answers were the more scant and meager But this did imitate Wisdome For a Duke of Venice that opens himself much will be chidden To conclude he was in his civil course a good Patriot and in his natural a good man They that are willing to censure him further think his whole composition fitter for the quality of the State then the times Now being thus passed away the first publick Care was to order his Funeral till when the Custome doth not suffer that a new can be chosen This was done the Thursday following with all due solemnity and in the mean time was made five Correctors and three Inquisitors The Correctors are to consider what Laws be fit to be added or amended touching the future Election or in the form or
this manner into your desires yet I hope it will please you to excuse it because I do it not only with willingness but in truth with pleasure for it falleth out that I have a little skill or at least an interest of Affection in the things that you wish from hence and therefore even mine own nature doth lead me to serve you besides my duty I have begun with a very poor Present of Strings for your Musick whereof I will provide hereafter better store and if it be possible of better quality by the first Ship your Honour shall receive some Lutes of Sconvels and Mango and withal a Chest of Glasses of mine own chusing at Murano wherein I do somewhat pretend and those Artificers are well acquainted with me Thus much in private For the Publick I have made by this Bearer a Dispatch unto the whole Body of His Majesties most Honourable Councel wherein your worthy Person is comprehended and therefore I hope that writing twice to your Honour now at once it may serve by your favour for some redemption of my former silence The subject of my Dispatch is as high as ever befel any forraign Minister wherein though mine own Conscience I thank God doth set me at rest yet I shall be glad of your Honourable approbation if it will please you to afford it me And so I humbly commit your Honour to Gods blessed love remaining At your commandment Much honoured Sir SInce I had the favour and the delight of any Letters from you you have had the trouble of two or three from me besides the present vvhich I hope vvill find you according to my continual vvishes in perfect health though you live in a Theater of Tragical Actions this year I am here newly delivered of one of the most fastidious pieces of my life as I account for my part the Week of our Annual Election of Scholers both into this Seminary and out of it for Kings Colledge in Cambridge vvhereunto hath been a marvellous Concourse and much distraction in our Votes through Letters from Court Pardon me Sir a Question by the vvay Have you no Child of your own or at least of some of your Friends vvhom you could vvish trained in this course I vvould fain beg some employment from you vvhich makes me offer you this or any other of those poor services vvhich lie vvithin my circumference as this Bearer hath particular charge from me This is that Nicholas Oudart for vvhom you did a great favour in procuring the Cardinal Infanta's Letters to Mechelen in his behalf which took so good effect as he is now personally flown over to consummate that business having information from his Correspondents there that it is ripened for him He hath served me from a little Page and of late years hath managed the chief part of my Domestick Affairs so as if it were not for his own urgent occasion I could hardly miss him that short time vvithin vvhich I expect his return You will find him I hope worthy of your love I am sure of your trust His profession is Physick towards vvhich he is very vvell grounded in the learned Languages But his Scope novv is Business not Knowledge If there shall by chance remain any thing to be added unto your former honourable Courtesie for the expedition of his Cause and Return you have given us both good cause to be confident both in your power and friendship And so Sir leaving him in your loving arms I rest for ever Your obliged and faithful Friend to serve you H. WOTTON To the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury July 30. 1637. May it please your Grace WE very humbly acknowledge that your Grace hath made us confident in your favour both by your former Letters vvhich are the true images of your mind and by that report vvhich Mr. Weaver and Mr. Harison brought us from your most Reverenced Person yet till after the Term vvhen vve might suppose your Grace somewhat freer then before though ever environed vvith more Honour then Ease vve vvere tender to trouble you vvith any prosecution on our parts of your good Intents towards this Collegiat Body about the yet unperfected though well imprimed Business of New Winsor But now after due Remembrance of our humble Devotions I am bold to signifie unto your Grace in mine own and in the name of the rest that having according to the fair Liberty which you were pleased to yield us consulted with our Councel at Law about some convenient form for the setling of that which his Majesty hath already granted by your Grace's Intercession we find the King can no way be bound but by his own goodness neither can we wish his Majesty in better or in safer Bonds therefore we hope to propound an Expedient which to my understanding will as Astronomers use to say save all appearances Namely c. Master Clâ—…avers Election shall be the more honoured by being a single example in whose Person we are sorry for nothing but that he needs not thank us for his choice And so doubting as little of your Grace's favour as we do of your Power in the consummating of our humble and as we hope they will appear of our moderate desires I ever with most hearty zeal remain From the Colledge this 30. of july 1637. At all your Grace's commands H. WOTTON Right Honourable and our very good Lord the Lord Keeper IT is so open and so general for any that flie unto your Lordships Tribunal to receive there a fair and equitable measure as it hath we know not how wrought in us a kind of unnatural effect For thereby we have been made the slower to render your Lordship our most humble thanks in our own proper Case because we knew not how to single it from the common benefit which all find in your goodness But we can now forbear no longer to joyn among our selves and with the universal voice in a blessing upon your Name And as we bring a true and humble acknowledgment in our particular that this Colledge is bound to celebrate your Honour for that charitable Injunction wherewith you have sustained a great and important portion of the livelihood of so many young Plants of good Literature till a further discussion of our Right so likewise we most humbly beseech your good Lordship in the sincerity of our own desires of quietness and in the confidence of our cause that you will be pleased to entertain with favour a Petition which our Councel will present unto your Lordship for some Day of bearing that shall best sort with your great affairs And so with all our joynt and hearty Prayers both of Young and Old for your long preservation We rest Your most humble and devoted Servants My most honoured Lady YOur young Kinsman shall be welcome hither at your pleasure and there shall want no respects on my part to make the place both fruitful and chearful unto him Touching the other part of your last
predatory I have forgotten for memoria primò senescit whether I told you in my last a pretty late experiment in Arthritical pains it is cheap enough Take a rosted Turnip for if you boyl it it will open the pores and draw too much apply that in a Poultice to the part affected with change once in an hour or two as you find it dried by the heat of the flesh and it will in little time allay the pain Thus much in our private way wherein I dare swear if our Medicines were as strong as our wishes they would work extreamly Now for the Publick where peradventure now and then there are distempers as well as in natural bodies The Earl of Holland vvas on Saturday last the day after your Posts departure very solemnly restored at Council Table the King present from a kind of Eclipse wherein he had stood since the Thursday fortnight before All considered the obscuration vvas long and bred both various and doubtfull discourse but it ended vvell All the cause yet known vvas a verbal challenge sent from him by Mr. Henry Germain in this form to the now Lord Weston newly returned from his forraign imployments That since he had already given the King an account of his Embassage he did now expect from him an account of a Letter of his vvhich he had opened in Paris and he did expect it at such a time even in the Spring garden close under his Fathers Window vvith his Sword by his side It is said I go no farther in such tender points that my Lord Weston sent him by Mr. Henry Percy between vvhom and the said Lord Weston had in the late journey as it seems been contracted such friendship as overcame the memory that he vvas Cousin-German to my Lord of Holland a very fair and discreet answer That if he could challenge him for any injury done him before or after his Embassage he vvould meet him as a Gentleman vvith his Sword by his side vvhere he should appoint But for any thing that had been done in the time of his Embassage he had already given the King an account thereof and thought himself not accountable to any other This published on Thursday vvas fortnight the Earl of Holland vvas confined to his Chamber in Court and the next day morning to his House at Kensington vvhere he remained vvithout any further circumstance of restraint or displeasure Saturday and Sunday on vvhich dayes being much visited it vvas thought fit on Munday to appoint Mr. Dickenson one of the Clerks of the Council to be his Guardian thus far that none vvithout his presence should accost him This made the vulgar judgements run high or rather indeed run low That he vvas a lost and discarded man judging as of Patients in Feavers by the exasperation of the fits But the Queen vvho vvas a little obliquely interested in this business for in my Lord of Holland's Letter vvhich vvas opened she had one that vvas not opened nor so much as they say as superscribed and both the Queen's and my Lord of Holland's vvere inclosed in one from Mr. Walter Mountague vvhereof I shall tell you more hereafter The Queen I say stood nobly by him and as it seems pressed her own affront It is too intricately involved for me so much as to guess at any particulars I hear generally discoursed that the opened dispatch vvas only in favour if it might be obtained of Monsieur de Chateau Neuf and the Chevalier de Jarr vvho had both been here but vvritten vvith caution and surely not vvithout the Kings knowledge to be delivered if there vvere hope of any good effect and perchance not vvithout Order from His Majesty to my Lord Weston afterwards to stop the said Letters upon advertisement that both Chateau Neuf and de Jarr vvere already in the Bastille But this I leave at large as not knowing the depth of the business Upon Munday vvas seven-night fell out another quarrel nobly carried branching from the former between my Lord Fielding and Mr. Goring Son and Heir to the Lord of that Name They had been the night before at Supper I know not vvhere together vvhere Mr. Goring spake something in diminution of my Lord Weston vvhich my Lord Fielding told him it could not become him to suffer lying by the side of his Sister Thereupon these hot hearts appoint a meeting next day morning themselves alone each upon his Horse They pass by Hide-Park as a place vvhere they might be parted too soon and turn into a Lane by Knights-bridge vvhere having tyed up their Horses at a Hedge or Gate they got over into a Close there stripped into their Shirts vvith single Rapiers they fell to an eager Duel till they vvere severed by the Host and his servants of the Inne of the Prince of Orange vvho by meer chance had taken some notice of them In this noble encounter vvhere in blood vvas spent though by Gods providence not much on either side there passed between them a very memorable interchange of a piece of courtesie if that vvord may have room in this place Sayes my Lord Fielding Mr. Goring If you leave me here let me advise you not to go back by Piccadillia-hall lest if mischance befall me and be suddenly noised as it falleth out in these occasions now between us you might receive some harm by some of my friends that lodge thereabouts My Lord replyes Goring I have no vvay but one to answer this courtesie I have here by chance in my Pocket a Warrant to pass the Ports out of England vvithout a Name gotten I suppose upon some other occasion before If you leave me here take it for your use and put in your own Name This is a passage much commended between them as proceeding both from sweetness and stoutness of spirit vvhich are very compatible On the solemn day of Saturday last both this difference and the Original between the Earl of Holland and the Lord Weston vvere fairly reconciled and forgiven by the King vvith shaking of hands and such Symbols of agreement And likewise Sir Maurice Dromand vvho had before upon an uncivil ture on his part between him and my Lord of Carlile been committed to the Tower was then delivered at the same time and so it all ended as a merry Fellow said in a Maurice But whether these be perfect cures or but skinnings over and Palliations of Court will appear hereafter Nay some say very quickly for my Lord Westons Lady being since brought to bed of a Daughter men stand in a kind of suspence whether the Queen will be the Godmother after so crude a reconcilement which by the Kings inestimable goodness I think may pass in this forgiving week For foreign matter there is so little and so doubtfull as it were a misery to trouble you with it The States confuted Treaty is put to the stock and the Prince of Orenge by account gone to the Field two days since having broken the business
may speak both openly and safely Yea let me adde this with confidence that if Nature her self the first Architectress had to use an expression of Vitruvius windowed your brest if your Majesty should admit the eyes of all men not only within the privatest parts of your Bed-Chamber but even into the inwardest closets of your heart no other thing at all would there appear save the splendor of your Goodness and an undistemper'd serenity of your Vertues What said I if you would admit As if those whom the Supreme Power hath set on high and in the light could be hid from our eyes or cover as it were by a drawn cloud the wayes of their Lives and Government Herein no doubt Obscurity and Solitude it self is more vailed then Majesty Thinks that Abissine Emperor whom men report to appear to publick view but once a year that therefore it is less known what he doth in secret Know we not at this day that Domitian even in his closest Cabinet wherein each day he shut up himself did nothing but stick flyes with a pointed Bodkin Lay Tiberius hid in his recess to the Islands of Caprea when among so many wounds and tortures of his conscience which as so many furies tormented him many tokens of a distracted mind did daily break forth Surely no. Your Majesty hath taught the Princes of your own and future times the only and most wholsome way of self-concealing in that you indeavour nothing to be concealed There are certain creatures of ingrateful aspect as Bats and Owls condemn'd by nature to hate the light I know also that some in power have also held it among the secrets of State and as a great mystery of craft to be served at a distance as if reverence did only dwell in Dens and Caves not in the light Whence then these Subtilties of Government In a word and freely they walked in crooked paths because they knew not the shortest way to be good But your Majesty doth not shun the eyes and access of your Subjects delight not in covert nor withdraw your self from your own people you do not catch at false veneration with a rigid and clouded countenance yea sometime you vouchsafe to descend even to some familiarity without offence to your dignity for thus you reason with your self in the clearness of your own bosome If it were not above our power to lye concealed yet were it below our goodness to desire it then which nothing surely can be in effect more popular for good Kings all good men openly revere and even the worst do it silently Whilest Vertues beauty not unlike some brightest Rayes strikes into the most unwilling eyes Wherefore as of late I took in hand Tranquillus Suetonius who hath laid open the very bowels of the Cesars to beguile in the time of your absence with some literate diversion the tedious length of those dayes and fell by chance upon that passage so lively describing the wailings of Augustus after the Varian defect often crying out Render me Quintilius Varus my Legions my desires of Your Majesty instantly flamed out and my wishes gowed for your Return for it seemeth then much juster for England to have solicited her SISTER with these panting suspirations then Augustus the Ghost of Quintilius Restore to me Scotland my Sister our King Restore the best of men whom none but the wicked love not none but the ignorant praise not Restore both the Director and Rule it self of Morality whereby we may become not the gladder only but the better too while at hand we may contemplate a thing most rare One in highest Place not inaulging to himself the least excess Since therefore such you are O best of Kings suffer I humbly pray if rather by Prayers then Arguments you choose to be inclined That the nine Nations of different Language for I reckon them no fewer over which you gently reign may glory in your being such and may each declare it not in their native Dialects alone which would not give sufficient compass to our joyes but however in this also more publick Tongue That even forraigners may know your Britany which formerly bestowed upon the Christian World their first and most renowed Emperor is not become so barren yet as not to afford even at this day a Type of the highest-famed King Having now thus I hope somewhat smooth'd the way to your patience in hearing good it will be henceforth out of the whole state of your Life and Carriage thus far summarily to pick up some particulars as those do who make their choice of Flowers For I please my self more in the choice then in the plenty of my Matter Although I am not ignorant neither that in this kind of speaking the diligence or ambition of the Ancients was so profuse that perhaps Timeus said not unwittily That Alexander the Macedonian sooner subdued all Asia then Isocrates did write his Panegyrick Certainly there seems then to have been too great an indulgence to Art while the Wits of Orators were wanton in that fertile age of Eloquence but it becometh me mindful both of my simplicity and age to touch rather the heads of your praises then to prosecute them all that even the succinctness of my speech may as it were resemble the passage of my fleeting years In the first place is offered the eminent Nobleness of your Extraction whereby in a long Order of antecedent Kings your lustre is above them all your Father himself not excepted This in brief I will deduce more clearly Your Great Great-Grandfather Henry the Seventh whether more valiant or fortunate I know not being almost at once an Exile and a Conqueror united by the Marriage of Elizabeth of York the white Rose and the red the Armories of two very powerful Families which being in division had so many years polluted their own Countrey with bloud and deadly Fewds The more blessed Colligation of the Kingdomes then that of the Roses we owe to the Happiness of your Father who even for that alone were to be remembred ever with highest veneration But in you singly most Imperial Charles is the conflux of the glory of all Nations in all Ages which since the Romans have possessed Britany either by right or by Arms in you I say alone whom the Cambrians first the English-Saxons Scots Normans and finally the Danes do acknowledge with us to be the branch of that Stock that hith erto hath worn the Crown In this perchance if the meanness of the comparison be not rejected not unlike to Europes famous Ister which rolling along through vast Countreys is ennobled with the waters of so many famous streams One not obscure among our Authors hath written that our Ancestors would not acknowledge the Norman Rule in England for legitimate which had so weak a beginning until Maud marrying with Henry the First had brought into the world a child of the bloud of the ancient Saxon Kings she was Sister to David Nephew twice removed
off King Ethelred your Progenitor How much is there now a nobler cause for our imbracing your Majesty with open arms who are descended unto us from so plentiful a Race of Kings since the access of the most ancient Cambrian Bloud to the rest of your Nobility by Queen ANNE your Mother a Lady of a great and masculine Mind And how much the more truly may we now repeat that which in the former Age Buchanaâ—… a Poet next the Ancients of most happy invention sang to your Grand-mother I wish with happier fate From numberless Progenitors you hold Transmitted Scepters which they sway'd of old But all these hitherto you scarcely account your own I pass then to such as are your own peculiar which conferre no less of lustre then they admit Three particulars we observe O best of Kings which Appellation I now again willingly and shall often use in your Beginnings of no small importance to your succeeding Progress as for the most part the first favour of Principles continues in the after-growths First That you were not born to the supream hope of Soveraignty so as flattery though an evil swift and watchful which attends the Cradles of Potent Heirs more gently pressed on your tender years And the whiles your native goodness drank in with a draught more uncompounded the generous liquor of Integrity for no doubt how the earliest dispositions of private persons much more of Princes be at first formed and as it were instilled that I may so speak is of highest importance to the Commonwealth whereof they are to become afterwards not only the Props but also the Precedents Next That you succeeded a Brother of no small Natural Endowments which begat thence-forward in your Parents a more industrious and closer sedulity for it surpasseth care for the accomplishment of their only Son Nay your own spirits daily grew the more intent when now the weight of so vast an expectation was lodged on your self alone Then were advanced to you such who faithfully instructed in learning that youth of yours as yet unapt for business Then such were sent for who as your strength increased dressed you in the exercises of the Horse which I call to mind with how graceful a dexterity you managed until afterwards at a solemn Tilting I became uncertain whether you strook into the beholders more Joy or Apprehension In the third place It comes to mind that for some time while Nature was as it were in strugling you were somewhat weak of limbs and far below that vigour which now with gladness we admire which I may judge to have befallen by the secret Councel of Providence thereby at that time to render more intense the care of furnishing your mind as became the Heir then secretly designed of a King whom Malignants themselves deny not to have been the wisest of all Princes from many Ages past From your first Essaies I shall hasten to your stronger times not unmindful of my promised business After your forraign Travels obnoxious to many hazards you came unto the Crown whence it appeared how much your self then dared to adventure when the while at home each one was trembling for your sake But the favour of Heaven brought you back safely to us not so much as coloured with out-landish Dye not unlike another Ulysses who accounted it sufficient even by Homers witness To have known the Morals of Men and Cities When you had assum'd the Crown before all other things there was resplendent in you a Religious mind the Support of Kingdomes the Joy of good men The Chappel Royal was never more in order The number of eminent Divines daily increased Sermons in no age more frequented In none more learned And the example of the Prince more effectual then the Sermons No execrations rashly proceeded from your mouth Your ears abhorring not only any wanton but even the least sordid word which perchance under Edward the 4th while toyish Loves did raign passed for Courtly eloquence Neither stopped this piety within the Walls of Court but was diffused also through the Kingdome The Church Revenues were not touched Temples here and there new founded Dâ—…apidations repaired And which Posterity will chiefly speak of the Riches of your Kingdome excited by your most religious exhortation for restauration of the Church consecrated to the Apostle of the Nations out of question the amplest and equally ancient of the Christian world which had sustained the injuries of time Where your Majesties care was greatly conspicuous in demolishing those private dwellings which disgraced the aspect of so goodly a Fabrick And not less in imposing the management of that whole business upon that most vigilant Prelate who for his singular fidelity and judgement hath lately merited far higher place Now next to God how tender was your affection to your People When the Sickness raged by your Command recourse was had to publick Fastings When we were pressed with greater fear then evil of Famine the Horders of Provisions were constrained to open their Garners and the prices of grain abated Among these most pious cares I cannot omit one peculiar Elogy proper to your own providence whereof I must repeat the Original a little higher There were hatched abroad some years agone or perhaps raked up out of Antiquity certain Controversies about high points of the Creed which having likewise flown over to us as flames of Wit are easily diffused lest hereabout also both Pulpits and Pens might run to heat and publick disturbance Your Majesty with most laudable temper by Proclamation suppressed on both sides all manner of debates Others may think what pleaseth them In my opinion if I may have pardon for the phrase The Itch of disputing will prove the Scab of Churches I shall relate what I have chanced more then once to observe Two namely arguing about some subject so eagerly till either of them transported by heat of contention from one thing to another they both at length had lost first their Charity and then also the Truth Whither would restless subtilty proceed if it were not bounded there is of captiousness no end but seasonable provision was made against it To these praises of Piety I will adde a very great evidence of Gratitude and almost a greater of Constancy towards George Villiers Duke oâ—… Buckingham him when amidst the dangers of the Spanish journey he had been the nearest of your attendants your Majesty afterwards as in requital bore safely with you at home through all the rocks of either Fortune till an unforeseen day was his conclusion We observed also no ordinary beams of your Favour to be cast upon another of your trusty Associates in the same Journey a Person of approved Judgement Neither do I recount these only among the arguments of an heart mindful of faithful Offices which indeed is Kingly but likewise of singular obsequiousness towards your Father even when deceased to whom the Duke of Buckingham had been for many years a Favourite as iâ—… Your Majesty